What is this trick deck?

[Joe Pecore]

Someone recently gave me an old Fox Lake brand trick deck with no instructions that I had never seen before.

It's similar to a rough/smooth version of the Mene-Tekel Deck in that it contains 26 pairs of identical cards except one of the pairs has a small round hole punched in the middle.

By spreading through the deck and cutting to any selected card, the top face down card is a normal card and the second card is it's exact duplicate with a hole it the center.

Anyone know what effect this was used for?

[Martin Kaplan]

It sounds like an old effect from Alan Alan. As I recall, it also came with a miniature cap pistol. The idea was that a card was freely (?) selected from the pack, returned, replaced in the case and the spectator fires at the deck. When the cards are removed from the case, the selected card is now seen to have a hole in it.

[Jonathan Townsend]

Originally posted by Martin Kaplan:
...is now seen to have a hole in it.

I recall this hole had some burn marks too

[Joe Pecore]

Thanks for the info so far.

This deck does not have any burn marks around the holes. Just a very small clean hole. I don't think a number two pencil will even fit through it.

Sounds like this deck could be used for the Alan Alan effect, but might not be the exact same thing.

[Ira Rush]

The Alan Alan routine that is mentioned was called "SharpShooter". The effect was as stated by many of the others who posted, a card is "selected" then the deck is shot with a cap pistol and then the "selected" card is found to have a bullet hole in it, along with some burn marks.

Now if your deck lacks the burn marks, but has the holes in it, I think the effect was something called the "Houdini Deck" sold many years ago by "Haines House of Card".

The effect went something like this, a card is selected,and returned to the deck, a shoelace/string is passed thru the deck and the deck is covered, then lo and behold the 'selected" card then falls to the ground as it is only card not bound by the shoelace/string.

If that's the deck you have, haven't seen that routine in years.

Hope this helps

[Joe Pecore]

I don't think it's the Houdini deck as every other card does not have hole in it, so it would be impossible to thread a string through the deck.

[Guest]

I just had a look at my old SharpShooter deck from the 70's. Yep still have them.
The hole is smaller than a pencil, and the holes do have burn marks. Also they are Fox Lake.
I don't remember any other marketed trick that used cards like these.
I also have the instruction sheet that came with the trick if it's of any use.

[Joe Pecore]

Thanks for the offer, but I'm not really looking for the instructions. I was just curious as to the possible origin of the deck.

Maybe this deck was someone's attempt to "copy" the SharpShooter deck.

Thanks for all the comments.

[Ira Rush]

Joe,

Without beating this topic into the ground...

I still think it might have been called the Houdini Deck by some companies,(i.e. Haines House of Cards).The deck that I have, that was produced by D.Robbins & Co. (1945) was called the "Miracle Card Trick". The effect was exactly as I stated in my previous post. The deck that I have is as you described, complete with holes and duplicate cards.

If you want, I can mail you a copy of those instructions.

Let me know if you want them, hope this helps

[Joe Pecore]

Maybe i would be interested then, since I don't see how that effect would work with my deck. Check your email.
Thanks,
Joe

[Ira Rush]

Joe:

Techno problems with scanning those instructions, so check your "snail-mail" within a week!

Hope this helps

[Ira Rush]

Joe

Sorry that your question about "what deck you have" is still up in the air.

Maybe when I read your original post and the description of your deck I mis-read or misinterpreted and jumped to the conclusion that you had one of the other mentioned decks.

If you are still curious, why not contact "Haines House of Cards" (they used Fox Lake cards often with the decks they produced) and see if they can shed further light on the issue.

I'm glad you enjoyed the info I mailed you.
Thank you for the compliment regarding my "Sharp Shooter" Tally Ho deck. I purposely made the holes off center for a more natural look. That deck is almost 40 years old, and the roughing fluid that was applied was never re-touched and the deck still works... boy they don't make roughing fluid like that any more!

Anyway, once again sorry if your Fox Lake deck is still considered a UFO - unidentified Fox Lake object :rolleyes:

[Joe Pecore]

Thanks again. I took your suggestion and fired off an email to Haines to see if they will help.

[Joe Pecore]

Got a quick and very nice answer back from Haines House of Cards.

It appears that the deck I have is one in which they may have only supplied the cards. They do not know what trick this particular deck was made for.

My current theory is that someone may have made this deck as a version of the "SharpShooter" deck without the "burn" marks. Possibly to be used for slightly different effect that did not evolve the use of a gun.

- Joe Pecore